On the fourth day of the trip was our first site visit! It was with Angelini Pharmaceuticals. Their visit was very well organized. They took a lot of hey took a lot of effort to explain their facility and business as well as the effects of the economy on them. Their agenda included a company presentation, facility tour, coffee and snack break, question and answers, as well as their current research and development projects.

Outside of the facilities

The group during the presentation.

Our lunch break was delicious!

So good!

After lunch we were also provided time to network and socialize with the Angelini professionals. They were very friendly and eager to speak with us.

After Angelini our group as off to Citta Nuova. They were an international religious printing business. We were shown examples of their work and we sat and listened to their members explain their business to us. All of this was done through our translator as some of the concepts were hard for the members to convey in English to us. Meeting with a religious printing company was especially exciting considering we were in Rome near the Pope!!

Examples of their work

One of the Global Lab Students with a fresh copy!

This is one of the professionals explaining the printing process to us as we watched it happen.

While in Ireland we were able to visit Mondelez International as well as Yahoo! Mondelez manufactures an ingredient in chewing gum and other similiar products. A large part of their business is exporting. Their members explained their business model to us then proceeded to give us a hands on tour of the factory and production process. We donned hairnets and dove right in!

O-H-I-O with our factory gear on!

We were also able to visit EMC while in Ireland. They manufacture electronic and computer devices. They also gave us a tour of the factory and a business presentation. Their speaker was especially interested in us! He asked us a lot of questions to gauge the opinion on topics of our generation. He was extremely intelligent. We were also able to visit Yahoo while in Ireland!

We were given a walking tour of Rome by tour guide. This day provided some of the best pictures of our entire trip! One of the biggest stops being the Colloseum. Our tickets to get in were already paid for with the cost of the trip and our guide walked us through and provided us with the history. We stayed together as a group and after this was finished the tour was over. The students were then free to explore Rome as much as they wanted until our welcome dinner at 7:00. Students went their different ways. Some went shopping. Others got food. One student, Matt Shaver, bought a day pass for the train and got off at every single stop and explored!

O-H-I-O in front of the Colloseum!

And again

The whole group!

Another stop during the day was the Pantheon. It was unbelievable being inside of a building with so much history.

Studying abroad with Fisher has been one of the highlights of my college experience. In our short time of 11 days we were able to see and experience so many things. I had previously studied abroad in high school with my senior Spanish class to Costa Rica to experience the culture and language. This immersion was entirely different. The business component is what made this trip. Being able to speak in my native language, English, to global business professionals is something that simply could not be done in a normal classroom at Ohio State.

This experience opened my eyes to just how connected the world is today. We were able to meet Ohio University band students and directors who were playing at the Vatican, an English teacher from my hometown of Dayton (Ohio), and plenty of Michigan and OSU fans. In a single restaurant in Italy we met people from Denmark, Romania, Italy, Finland, England, Spain, Brazil, Germany, and France. In one single restaurant. These were just people my own age that we spoke to. It was unbelievable.

Our classroom discussions were reinforced daily in real life discussions. While we were discussing the European Union with one of the representatives I remembered tidbits of information that Melissa had taught us in class. This was classroom learning implemented in the truest form. We were using knowledge learned from a book to speak with someone who actually worked in the EU! It was phenomenal. It made the learning experience so much more real and beneficial.

One interesting fact I remembered from the class is a woman that was mentioned who ran a business making gluten-free dough. Surprisingly, most of her business was overseas through exporting. Today’s world is so much more different than it was thirty years ago. It’s hard to believe a woman can make a living selling dough by shipping it all over the world as opposed to a conventional bakery.

After going abroad with Fisher I am much more interested in International Business. Although my major is Finance I definitely plan to look into career opportunities that may allow international travel opportunities. It would be amazing to find a job with a global corporation that would allow me to meet with colleagues in other countries.

The benefits of going abroad are not only academic and professional. Some of my best friends at Ohio State are Global Lab students that I never met before this trip. We bonded in the class time and overseas. Not only that, but the friendships we have made will surely be valuable someday. We are all Fisher Direct Honors students. When we returned in the fall and visited the involvement fair I saw more Global Lab students than any of my other friends. We were all there representing different organizations! Whether it was the running club, or a fraternity or sorority, or the Undergraduate Finance Association, so many of us were there. The students who went on this trip with me are some of the best, brightest, and most involved in Fisher. There is no doubt that we are all headed toward bright futures.

We were finally leaving! Everything was packed, and we left for the airport around 8:00 am. Our first flight was from Columbus to Chicago. Due to the time zones we were leaving at 11:01 am and arriving at 11:16 am. Not everyone had chosen the faculty flight, but a majority of the students did and we were able to meet up while waiting for our plane. Once we arrived in Chicago we got food. I was wearing a drawstring bag with the OSU logo on it and got an OH-IO from a stranger within the first ten minutes. The first one of the trip!

The plane to Germany was huge! There were three rows of seating with two aisles in between. Our group was scattered throughout the plane. We had these awesome video players in the head rest of the seat in front of us. We were able to watch television shows, movies, and documentaries. They had a great selection too. I counted at least 50+ comedy movies alone. These screens also provided information about the flight like the speed, ETA, and the current location.

I actually ended up sitting next to a Michigan fan on the plane! She commented when she saw my OSU bag. What are the odds? We were all tired but excited at the same time. We had a big day ahead of us! We still had a flight to Florence from Germany and then a train from Florence to Rome.

I had a window seat and was able to see a beautiful sunset. It was golden on the horizon against the silhouette of the plane wing. At that point it was 7:20 pm Chicago time and 2:20 am Germany time. When we flew over Manchester we saw the city lights and the highways. You could spot each town by the clusters of lights and see all of the roads connected them. It was like little lit up spider webs all over the landscape.

Excuse the dirty airplane windows!

While on the flight I woke up from a nap and looked out the window just in time to see the Swiss Alps! It was crazy. They stretched as far as the eye could see. I had no idea that we would be flying over them. We were close enough to see the ice caps and the green valleys.

Swiss Alps

Alps again

The flight finally arrived in Florence. We made it! We were in Italy! Mellisa, our faculty director helped group everyone together. The worst thing possible happened to me. My luggage was lost!! I was devastated. I could not believe that this happened the first day of the trip. Turns out it was just in a different part of the airport. Mellisa was able to speak with the airport workers and find it for me. It was hard because Italian was their first language. At this point it was Saturday May 11.

No sleep! After arriving at the Florence airport and everyone claimed their luggage we boarded our private coach and met our tour guide. We arrived in Florence at 11:00 am. Upon arrival we were given ear pieces in order to hear our guide speak to us as we were walking. Our walking tour began as soon as we got off the bus. The guide was very thorough and explained the history of the town of Florence along with the buildings and statues that we passed by.

This building is the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. Construction for it began in 1296and it was completed in 1436. The exterior of the basilica is faced with marble panels in shades of pink and green.

This is the roof of the dome of the Basilica.

I was surprised at how elegant so many of the doors and gates were in Italy.

This part is inside the Duomo. In the photo above you can see the designs on the wall. According to the tour guide people are actually buried in the walls behind the designs.

Our tour lasted until 1:00 pm. Then we were given three hours to explore the area. We split into groups and did some shopping. A lot of the girls bought leather goods. We were told they make excellent purses and belts and wallets. We were also free to grab some food. We stopped at a restaurant and had our first pizza in Italy! We also got some gelato. We met up again at 4:00 to board the train to Rome.

The entire global lab!

Waiting for the train.

At this point we had all been up since 8:00 am the previous day. We had naps on the plane but no actual good rest. The train left at 5:04 pm and took an hour and a half. Nearly everyone fell asleep.

Jack and George couldn’t take any more and caught some shut eye on the train ride.

At 6:30 pm we arrived in our hotel and checked in. We settled down and unpacked everything and got dinner. I don’t have any pictures of dinner because my devices were dead from travelling and taking pictures all day. We were able to explore the area around our hotel a bit. We also found a great gelato place down the street!

Yum!

This was the view from our hotel room!!! It was gorgeous. Some rooms had balconies. Others had multiple windows. We were on the highest floor with no balcony. Since we still didn’t have phone service we had to write down everyone’s room numbers to go visit them. We had a blast checking out how each room was different. Jack was my roommateand we got along well. Our room had a bathroom and two beds. The hotel workers were very courteous and friendly. We unpacked everything and laid out our clothes for the next day and went to bed! We were all exhausted.